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FREEDMEN’S BUREAU. 


SPEECH 


ov 


HON. L. TRUMBULL, 


1 1 


OF ILLINOIS, I 

5*3 V 

In the Senate of the United States, January 19, 1866L 


6 \ \ • 

The Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, having under consideration the bill (S. No. 60) to enlarge 

the powers of the Freedmen’s Bureau— 

Mr. TRUMBULL said : Mr. President, I feel it incumbent on me to reply to some of 
the arguments presented by the Senator from Indiana against this bill. Many of the 
positions he has assumed will be found, upon examination, to have no foundation in 
fact. He has argued against provisions not contained in the bill, and he has argued 
also as if he were entirely forgetful of the condition of the country and of the great 
war through which we have passed. 

Now, sir, what wa-< the object of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and why was it established ? 
It was established to look alter a large class of people who, as the results of the war, 
had been thrown upon the hands of the Government, and must have perished but for 
its fostering care and protection. Does the Senator mean to deny the power of this 
Government to protect people under such circumstances ? The Senator must often 
have voted for appropriations to protect other classes of the people under like circum¬ 
stances. Whenever, in the history of the Government, there has been thrown upon it 
a helpless population which must starve and die but for its care, the Government has 
never failed to provide for them. At this very session both Houses of Congress have 
voted half a million dollars to feed and clothe Indians. We did not hear the Senator’s 
voice in opposition to that appropriation. What were the facts ? It was stated by our 
Indiau agents that the Indian tribes west of Arkansas, a part of whom had joined the 
rebel armies and some the Union armies, had been driven from their country ; that 
their property had been destroyed; and now, the conflict of arms having ceased, they 
had nothing to live upon during the winter ; that they would encroach upon the white 
settlements unless provision was made for them, and w^ould rob, plunder, and murder 
the inhabitants nearest them ; and Congress was called upon to appropriate money to 
buy them food and clothing, and we did it., We did it for rebels and traitors. Were 
we not bound to do it ? 

Now, sir, we have thrown upon us four millions of people who have toiled all their 
lives for others ; who, unlike the Indians, had no property at the beginning of the re¬ 
bellion; who were never permitted to own anything, never permitted to eat the bread 
their own hands had earned ; many of whom are without any means of support, in the 
midst of a prejudiced and hostile population who have been struggling to overthrow the 
Government. These four million people, made free by the acts of war and the consti¬ 
tutional amendment, have been, wherever they could, loyal and true to the Union ; and 
the Senator seriously asks, what authority have we to appropiate money to take care 
of them? What would he do with them? Would he allow them to starve and die? 
Would he turn them over to the mercy of the men who, through their whole lives, have 










2 



had their earnings, to he enslaved again ? It is not the first time that money has heen 

appropiated to take care of the destitute a:.d suffering African. For years it lias been 
the law that whenever persons of African descent were brought to our shores with the 
intention of reducing them io slavery, the Government should, if possible, rescue and 
restore them to their native land ; and we have appropriated hundreds of thousands of 
dollars -Or this object. Can anybody deny the right to doit? Sit, humanity as well 
as the constitutional obligation to suppress the slave trade required it. So now the 
people relieved by our act from the control of masters who supplied their wants that 
they might have their services, have a right to rely upon us for assistance till they can 
have time to provide for themselves. 

This Fieedmen’s Bureau is not intended as a permanent institution. It is only de¬ 
signed to aid these helpless, ignorant, and unprotected people until they can provide 
for and take care of them-elves. The, authority to do this, so far as legislative sanction 
can give it, is to be found in the action of a previous Congress which established the 
bureau, but if it were a new question, the authority for rstablbhing such a buieau, in 
my jiidgrrient, is given by the Constitution itself; and v as the Senator’s whole argument 
goes upon the idea of peace, and that all the consequences of the war have ceased, I 
shall be pardoned, I Gust, if 1 refer to those provisions of the Constitution which, in 
my judgment, authorize the exercise of this military jurisdiction—for this bureau is a 
part of the military establishment not simply during the contlict of arms, but until peace 
shall be lirmly established and the civil tribunals of the country shall he restored with 
an assurance that they may peacefully enforce the laws without opposition. 

The Constitution of the United States declares that Congress shall have authority 
“to declare war and make iules concerning captures on land and water,” “to raise and 
support armies,” “to provide and maintain a navy,” “to make rules for the govern¬ 
ment and regulation of the land and naval forces,” “to provide for calling fortl^ the 
militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasion,” 
and “to make all law < which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution 
the foregoing powers.” It also declares that “the citizens of each State shall be enti¬ 
tled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States,” and that 
“ the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of gov¬ 
ernment.” Under the exercise of these powers the Government has gone through a 
four years’ conflict. It lias succeeded in putting down armed resistance to its author¬ 
ity. But did (lie military power which was exercised to put down this armed resistance 
cease the moment the rebel armies were dispersed ? lias the Government no authority 
to bring to punishment the authors of this rebellion after the contlict of arms has ceased; 
no authority to hold as prisoners, it necessary, all who have been captured with arms 
in their hands ? Can it be that the moment the rebel armies are dispersed the military 
authority ceases, and they are to be turned loose to arm and organize again for another 
coniliet against the Union ? Why, sir, it would not be more preposterous on the part 
of the traveler, after having, at the peril of liis life, succeeded in disarming a highway¬ 
man by whom he was assailed, to immediately turn round and restore to the robber liis 
weapons with which to make a new assault. 

And } r et this is what some gentlemen would have this nation do with the worse than 
robbers who have assailed its life. They propose, the rebel armies being overcome, 
that the rebels themselves shall b * instantky clothed with all the authority they pos¬ 
sessed before the conflict, and that the inhabitants of States who for more than four 
years have carried on an organized war against the Government shall at once he in¬ 
vested with all the powers they had at its commencement. Nay, more, they insist 
that without any action of the Government it is the r.iyht of the inhabitants of the re¬ 
bellious States on laying down their arms to resume their former positions in the Union 
with all the rights they possessed when they began the war. If such are the conse¬ 
quences of this struggle, it is the first contlict in the history of the world, between 
either individuals or nations, from which such results have followed. What man, after 
being despoiled of much of his substance, his children slain, his own life periled, and 
his body bleeding from many wounds, ever restored the authors of such calamities, 
when within his power, to the rights they possessed before the conflict without taking 
some security for the future? , 

Sir, the war powers of the Government do not cease with the dispersion of the rebel 
armies. They are to be continued and exercised until the civil authority of the Govern¬ 
ment can he established firmly and upon a sure foundation not again to be disturbed or 
interfered with. And such, sir, is the understanding of the Government. None of 
the departments of the Government understand that its military authority has ceased 
to operate over the rebellious States. It is but a short time since the President of the 


c 


c 


8 


United States issued a proclamation restoring the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus 
in the loyal States, hut did he restore it in the rebellious States ? Certainly Aot. Wliat 
authority has he to suspend the privilege of that writ anywhere except in pursuance 
of the constitutional provision allowing the writ to be suspended “when in cases of 
rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it?” Then the President under¬ 
stands that the public safety in the insurrectionary States still requires its suspension. 

The Attorney Genet a!, when asked a few days ago why Jefferson Davis was not put 
upon trial, told you that, “though active hostilities have ceased, a state of war still 
exists over the territory in rebellion,” so that it could not be properly done. General 
Grant, in an order issued within a few days—which I commend to the especial consid¬ 
eration of the Senator from Indiana, for it contains many of the provisions of the bill 
under consideration ; an order issued with the approbation of the Executive, for such 
an order, I apprehend, could not, have been issued without his approbation, declares : 

[General Orders, No. 1.] 

“ War Department, 
Adjutant General’s Office, 
Washington, January, 12, 1866. 

To protect persons against improper civil suits anil penalties in late rebellious States. 

Military division and department commanders, whose commands embrace or are 
composed of any of the late rebellious States, and who have not already done so, will 
at once issue and enforce orders protecting from prosecution or suits in the State, or 
municipal courts of such State, all officers and soldiers of the armies of the United 
States, and all persons thereto attached, or in anywise thereto belonging, subject to 
military authority, charged with offences for acts done in their military capacity, or 
pursuant to orders from proper military authority ; and to piotect from suit or prose¬ 
cution all loyal citizens, or persons, charged with offences done against the rebel forces, 
directly or indirectly, during the existence of the rebellion ; and all per.-ons, their 
agents or employees, charged with the occupancy of abandoned land or plantations, or 
the possession or custody of any kind of property whatever, who occupied, used, pos¬ 
sessed or controlled the same, pursuant to the order of the President, or any of the 
civil or military departments of the Government, ami to protect them from any penal¬ 
ties or damages that may have been or may he pronounced or adjudged in said courts 
in any of such cases ; and also protecting colored persons from persecutions in any of 
said .'tates charged with offences for which white persons are not prosecuted or pun¬ 
ished in the same manner and degree. 

By command of Lieutenant General Grant. E. D. TOWNSEND, 

Assistant Adjutant General .” 

Mr. SAULSBURY. As I propose to make some remarks in reply to the honorable 
Senator from lilino , the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, I wish to ask 
him one question, and it is this : whether he believes that General Grant, or the Pres¬ 
ident of the United States, had any constitutional authority to make such an order as 
that? I should like to have an answer to this question. 

Mr. TRUMBULL. 1 am very glad the Senat-w from Delaware has asked the ques¬ 
tion. I answer, he had most amp e and complete authority. I endorse the order and 
every word of it. It would he monstrous if the officers and soldiers of the Army and 
loyal citizens were to be subjected to suits and prosecutions for acts done in saving the 
Republic, and that, too, at the hands of the very men who sought its destruction. 
Why, had not the Lieutenant-General authority to issue the order ? Have not the civil 
tribunals in all the region of country to which the order applies been expelled by armed 
rebels arid traitors ? lias not the power of the Government been overthrown there ? 
Is it yet re-established? Some steps have been taken toward re-establishing it under 
the authority of the military, and in no other way. If any of the State governments 
recently set up in the rebellious States were to undertake to embarrass, military opera¬ 
tions, l have no doubt they would at once be set aside by order of the Lieutenant- 
General, in pursuance of directions from the Executive. These governments which 
have been set up act by permission of the military. They are made use ot to some 
extent to preserve peace and order and enforce civil rights between parties ; and so far 
as they act in harmony with the Constitution and laws of the United States, and the 
orders of the military commanders, they are permitted to exercise authority ; but until 
those States shall be restored in all their constitutional relations to the Union they 
ought not to he permitted to exercise authority in any other way. 

I desire the Senator from Indiana to understand that it is under this war power that 
the authority of the Freedmeu’a Bureau is to he exercised. 1 do not claim that its 


% 


4 


officers can try persons for offences without juries in States where the civil tribunals 
have not been interrupted by the rebellion. 

The Senator argues against this bill as if it was applicable to Indiana. Some of 
its provisions are, but most of th»*m are not, unless the State of Indiana has been in 
rebellion against the authority of the Government ; and 1 know too many of the brave 
men who have gone Iroiu that State to maintain the integrity of the Union and put 
d»wn the rebellion to cast any such imputation upon her. She is a loyal an da pa¬ 
triotic State ; her civil government has never been usurped or overthrown by trai ors, 
and the provisions of the seventh and eighth sections of the bill to which the Senator 
alludes cannot, by their very terms, have any application to the State of Indiana. 

Again, the Senator objects very much to the expense of this bureau. Why, sir, as 
1 have once or twice before said, it is a part of the military establishment. I believe 
nearly all the officers at the present time are military officers, and by the provisions of 
the pending bill they are to receive no additional compensation when performing duties 
in the Freedmen’s Bureau. 

I shall necessarily, Mr. President, in following the Senator from Indiana, speak 
somewhat in a desultory manner ; but I prefer to do so because I would rather meet 
the objections made directly than by any general speech. I will therefore take up his 
next objection, which is to the fifth section of the bill. That section proposes to con¬ 
firm for three years the possessory titles granted by General Sherman. The Senator 
from Indiana admits that General Sherman had authority when at the head of the 
army at Savannah, and these people were flocking around him and dependent upon 
him for support, to put them upon the abandoned lands ; but be says that authority 
to put them there and maintain them there ceased with peace. Well, sir, a sufficient 
answer to that would be that peace lias not yet come ; the effects of war are not yet 
ended ; the people of the States of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, where these 
lands are situated, are yet subject to military control. But I deny that if peace had 
come the authority of the Government to protect these people in their possessions 
would cease the moment it was declared. What are the facts ? The owners of these 
plantations had abandoned them and entered the rebel army. They were contending 
against the army which General Sherman then commanded. Numerous colored people 
had flocked around General Sherman’s army. It was necessary that he should supply 
them in order to.save them from starvation. His commissariat was short. Here was 
this abandoned country owned by men arrayed in arms against the Government. He, 
it is admitted, had authority to put these followers of his army upon these lands and 
authorize them to go to work and gain a subsistence if they could. They went on the 
lands to the number of forty or fifty thousand, commenced work; have made improve¬ 
ments ; and now, will the Senator from Indiana tell me that upon any principle of 
justice, humanity, or law, if peace had come when these laborers had a crop half gath¬ 
ered, the Government of the United States, having rightfully placed them in posses¬ 
sion, and pledged its faith to protect, them there for an uncertain period, could 
immediately Lave turned them off and put in possession those traitor owners who had 
abandoned their homes to fight against the Government ? 

Mr. HENDRICKS. With the permission of the Senator, I will answer the question 
that is propounded by him. It is, whether as an act of justice, if your army was with¬ 
drawn and the possessory right ceased in the midst of a growing crop, they could be 
immediately turned off. I presume the Senator will agree with me that the common- 
law principle applicable to such a case would apply to that particular case, and that is, 
that where an estate is uncertain in its duration, and it ceases to exist while a crop is 
growing, it shall continue until that crop is gathered. For instance, a life estate is un¬ 
certain in its duration ; a crop is growing, and because of the death of the party upon 
whose life the estate is dependent the estate ceases; yet it shall continue until the 
growing crop is gathered. I presume that principle of law would apply to an uncertain 
possessory right, such as General Sherman undertook to confer. 

Mr. TRUMBULL. I presume so, too; the Senator from Indiana and myself agree 
precisely, and he has admitted now all I desire him to admit. Then the Government 
having placed these people rightfully upon these lands, and they having expended 
their labor upon them, had a right to be protected in tlieir possessions for some 
length of time after peace on the principle of equity. That is all we propose to do by 
this bill. The committee thought it would not be more than a reasonable protection to 
allow them to remain for three years, they having been put upon tiiese lands destitute, 
without any implements of husbandry, without cattle, horses, or anything else with 
which to cultivate the land, and having up to the present time been able to raise very 
little at tlxw expense of great labor. Perhaps the Senator thinks they ought not to re- 


6 


main so long 1 . I will not dispute whether they shall go off at the end of one year or 

two years. The committee propose two years more. 

On account ot tlint provision of the bill the Senator asks me the question whether 
the Government of the United States has a right in time of peace to take property from- 
one man and give it to another. 1 say no. Of course the Government of the United 
States has no authority in a time of peace, by a legislative act, to say that the farm of 
the Senator from Indiana shall be given to the Senator from Ohio ; I contend lor no 
such principle But following that up, the Senator wants to know by what authority 
you buy land or provide school-houses for these refugees. Have we not been provid¬ 
ing school-houses for years ? Is there a session of Congress when acts are not passed 
giving away public lands for the benefit of schools ? But that does not come out of the 
Treasury, the Senator from Indiana will probable answer. But liow did you get the 
land to give away ? Did you not buy it of the Indians ? Are you not appropriating 
every session of Congress money by the million to extinguish the Indian title, money 
collected olf his constituents and mine by taxation ? We buy the land and then we give 
the land away for schools. Will the Senator tell me bow that difi’ers from giving the 
money ? Does it make any difference whether we buy the land from the Indians and 
give it for the benefit of schools, or whether we buy it from some lebel and jdve—no, 
sir—use it for the benefit of schools, with a view ultimately of selling it for at least its 
cost ? I believe I would rather buy from the Indian; but still if the traitor is to be 
permitted to have a title, we will buy it from him if we can purchase cheaper. 

Sir, it is a matter of economy to do this. The cheapest way by which you can save 
this race from starvation and destruction is to educate them. They will then soon be¬ 
come self-sustaining. The report of the Freedmen’s Bureau shows that to-day more 
than seventy thousand black children are being taught in the schools which have been 
established in the South. We shall not long have to support any of these blacks out 
of the public Treasury if we educate and furnish them land upon which they can 
make a living for themselves. This is a very different thing from taking the land of A 
and giving it to B by an act of Congress. 

But the Senator is most alarmed at those sections of this bill which confer judicial 
authority upon the officers and agents of the Freedmen’s Bureau. He says if this au¬ 
thority can be exercised there is an end to all the reserved rights of the States, and this 
Government may do anything. Not at all, sir. The authority, to be exercised under 
the seventh and eight sections is a military authority, to be exerted only in regions of 
country where the civil tribunals are overthrown, and not there after they are restored. * 
It is the same authority that we have been exercising all the time in the rebellious 
States; it is the same authority by virtue of which General Grant issued the order 
which I have just read. Here is a perfect and complete answer to the objection that is 
made to the seventh and eighth sections. 

But the Senator says that these sections, he supposes, derive their authority, in my 
opinion, from the amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Sir, I think 
that amendment does confer authority to enact these provisions into law and exe¬ 
cute them, not through the military tribunals, but through the judicial tribunals in 
any State of the Union. What was the object of the constitutional amendment abol¬ 
ishing slavery ? It was not, as the Senator says, simply to take away the power of the 
master over the slave. Did we not mean something more than that ? Did we not mean 
that hereafter slavery should not exist, no matter whether the servitute was claimed 
as due to an individual or the State? The constitutional amendment abolishes just as 
absolutely all provisions of State or local law which make a man a slave as it takes 
away tl e power of his former master to control him. 

If the construction put by the Senator from Indiana upon the amendment be the 
true one, and we have merely taken from the master the power to control the slave 
and left him at the mercy of the State to be deprived of bis civil rights, the trumpet of 
freedom that we have been blowing throughout the land has given an “uncertain 
sound,” and the promised freedom is a delusion. Such was not the intention of Cou- 
gress, which proposed the constitutional amendment, nor is such the fair meaning of 
the amendment itself. With the destruction of slavery necessarily follows the des¬ 
truction of the incidents to slavery. When slavery was abolished, slave codes in its 
support were abolished also. 

Those laws that prevented the colored man going from home, that did not allow him 
to buy or to sell, or to make contracts ; that did not allow him to hold property ; that 
did not allow him to enforce rights ; that did not allow him to be educated, were all 
badges of servitude made in the interest of slavery and as a part of slavery. They 
never would have been thought of or enacted anywhere but for slavery, and when 
slavery falls they fall also. The policy of the States, where slavery has existed has 
been to legislate in its interest; and eut of deference to slavery, which was tolerated 






8 


. by tjie Constitution of the United Ftates, even some of the non-slaveholding States' 
passed laws abridging the rights of the colored man which were restraints upon liberty. 
When slavery goes, all this system of legislation, devised in the interest of slavery 
•and for the purpose of d -grating the colored race, of keeping the negro in ignorance, of 
blotting out from his very soul the light of reason, if that were possible, that he might 
not think but know only, like the ox, to labor, goes with it. 

Now, when slavery no longer exists, the policy of the Government is to legislate in 
the interest of freedom. Now, our laws are to be enacted with a view to educate, im¬ 
prove, en ighten, and Christianize the negro ; to make him an independent man; to 
teach him to think and to reason ; to improve that principle which the great Author 
of all has implanted in every human breast, which is susceptible of the highest cul¬ 
tivation, and destined to go on enlarging and expanding through the endless ages of 
eternity. 

I have no doubt that under this provision of the Constitution we may destroy all 
discriminations in civil rights against the black man ; and if we cannot, our constitu¬ 
tional amendment amounts to nothing. It was for that purpose that the second clause 
of that amendment was adopted, which says that Congress shall have 'authority, by 
appropriate legislation, to carry into effect the article prohibiting slavery. Who is to 
decide what the appropriate legislation is to be ? The Congress of the United States ; 
and it is for Congress to adopt such appropriate legislation as it may think proper, so 
that it be a means to accomplish the end. If we believe a Freed men’s Bureau neces¬ 
sary, if we believe an act punishing any man who deprives a colored person of any civil 
rights on account of his color necessary; if that is one means to secure his freedom, we 
have the constitutional right to adopt it. If in order to prevent slavery Congress deem 
it necessary to declare null and Void all laws which will not permit the colored man to 
contract, which will not permit him to testify, which will not permit him to buy and 
sell, and to go where lie pleases, it has the power to do so, and not only the power, 
hut it becomes its duty to do so. That is what is provided to be done by tins bill. Its 
provisions are temporary; but there is another bill on your tabic, somewhat akin to 
this, which is intended to be permanent, to extend to all parts of the country, and to 
protect persons of all races in equal civil rights. 

But, says the Senator from Indiana, we have laws in Indiana prohibiting black peo¬ 
ple from marrying whites, and are you going to disregard these Jaws ? Are our laws 
enacted for the purpose of preventing amalgamation to be disregarded, and is a man to 
•» be punished because lie undertakes to enforce them ? I beg the Senator from Indiana 
to read the bill. One of its objects is to secure the same civil rights arid subject to the 
same punishments persons of all races and colors. How does this interfere with the 
law of Indiana preventing marriages between whites and blacks? Are not both races 
treated alike by the law of Indiana ? Does not the law m»ke it just as much a crime 
lor a White man to marry a black woman as for a black woman to marry a white man, 
and vice versa ? I presume there is no discrimination in this respect, and therefore 
your law forbidding marriages between whites and i lacks operates alike on both races. 
This bill does not interfere with it. I see no discrimination against either in this re¬ 
spect that does not apply to both. Make the penalty the same on all classes of people 
for the same offense, and then no one can complain. 

My object in bringing forward these measures was to bring to the attention of Con¬ 
gress something that was practical, something upon which l hoped all could agree. I 
have said nothing in these bills which are pending, and which have been recommended 
by the Committee oil the Judiciary—and 1 speak of both of them because they have 
both been alluded to in this discussion—about the political rights of the negro. On 
that su ject it is known that there are differences of opinion, but I trust .there are no 
differences of opinion among the friends of the constitutional amendment, among those 
who are for real freedom to the black man, as to his being entitled to equality in civil 
rights. If that is not going as far as some gentlemen would desire, I say to them it is 
a step in the light direction. Let us go that hr, and, going that far, we have the co¬ 
operation of the executive department, for the President has told us in his annual 
message that— 

‘‘Good faith requires the security of the freedmen in their liberty and their property, 
“their right to labor, and their right to claim the just return of their labor. 

“ The public interest will be best promoted, if the several states will provide adequate 
“protection and remedies for the freed men. ******* 

“Monopolies, perpetuities, and class legislation are contrary to the genius of free gov- 
“ eminent, and ought not to be alowed. Here there is no room for favored classes or 
“ monopolies; the principle of our Government is that of equal laws and freedom of ia« 


“dustrv. Wherever monopoly attains a foothold, it is sure to be a source of danger, 
“discord, and trouble. We shall but fulfil our duties as legislators by according equal 
“and exact justice to all men,’ special privileges to none.” 

Such, sir, is the language of the President of the United States in his annual mes¬ 
sage, and who in this Chamber that is in favor of the freedom of the slave is not in favor 
of giving him * qual and exact justice before the law ? Sir, we can go along hand in hand 
together to the consummation of this great object of securing to every human being 
within the jurisdiction of the Republic equal rights before the law, and 1 preferred to 
seek for points of agreement between all the departments of Government, rather than 
to hunt for points of divergence. 1 have not said anything in my remarks about re¬ 
construction. I have not attempted to discuss the question whether these States are 
in the Union or out of the Union, and so much has been said upon that subject that I 
am almost ready to exclaim, with one of old, “ I know not whether they are in the body 
or out of the body; God knowetli.” It is enough for me to know that the State or¬ 
ganizations in several States of the Union have been usurped and overthrown, and that 
up to the present time no State organization has been inaugurated in either of them 
which the various departments of Government or any department of the Government 
has recognized as placing the State in full possession of aLl the constitutional rights 
pertaining to a State in lull communion with the Union. 

The Executive has not recognized any one, for he still continues to exercise military 
jurisdiction and to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in all of them. 
Congress has not recognized any of them, as we all know; and until Congress and the 
Executive do recognize them, let us make use of the Freedtnen’s Bureau, already es¬ 
tablished, to protect the colored race in their rights; and when these States shall be 
recognized, and the authority of the Freedmen’s Bureau as a court shall cease and de¬ 
termine, as it must when civil authority is fully restored, let us provide, by other laws 
for protecting all people in their equal civil rights before the law. If we can pass such 
measures and they receive Executive sanction; an i it shall be understood that it is the 
policy of the Government that the rights of the colored men are to be protected by the 
States if they will, hut by the Federal Government it they will not; that at all hazards 
and under all circumstances tin re shall be impartiality among all classes in civil 
rights throughout the land. If we can do this, much of the apprehension and anxiety 
now existing in the loyal States will be allayed, and a great obstacle to an early resto¬ 
ration of the insurgent States to their constitutional relations in the Union will be re¬ 
moved. 

If the people in the rebellions States can be made to understand that it is the fixed 
and determined policy of the Government that the colored people shall be protected in 
their civil rights,they themselves, will adopt the necessary measures to protect them; 
and that will dispense with the Freedmen’s Bureau and all other federal legislation for 
their protection. The design of these bills is not, as the Senator from Indiana would 
have us believe, to consolidate all power in the Federal Government, or to interfere 
with the domestic regulations of any of the States, exc-pt so far as to carry out a con¬ 
stitutional provision which is the supreme law of the land. If the States will not do 
it, then it is incumbent on Congress to do it. Bat if the States will do it, then the 
Freedmen’s Bureau will be removed, and the authority proposed to be given by the 
other bill will have no operation. 

Sir, 1 trust there may be no occasion long to exercise the authority conferred by this 
bill. 

I hope the people of the rebellious States themselves will conform to the existing 
condition of things. I do not expect them to change all their opinions and prejudices. 
I do not expect them to rejoice that they have been discomfited. But they acknowl¬ 
edge that the war is over ; ti.ey a^ree that they can no longer contend in arms against 
the Government; they say they are willing to submit to its authority ; they say in 
their State conventions that slavery shall no more exist among them. With the aboli¬ 
tion of slavery should go all the badges of servitude which have been enacted for its 
maintenance and support. Let them all be abolished. Let the people of the rebel¬ 
lious States now be as zealous and as active in the passage of laws and the inaugura¬ 
tion of measures to elevate, develope, and improve the negro, as they have hitherto 
been to enslave and degrade him. Let them do justice and deal fairly with loyal Union 
men in their midst, and henceforth be themselves loyal, and this Congress will not 
have adjourned till the States whose inhabitants have been engaged in the rebellion 
will be restored to their former position in the Union, and we shall all be moving on in 
harmony togetlier. 


H_ Polkinhorn k Bjsx, Primers’ 376 ami 377 D street, near 7th, Washington, D.,C. 









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